I leafed through my recipe box the other day, and came across one of my biscotti recipes. It calls for bananas and pecans. Hey, I had two over ripe bananas begging to be used up (and I hate eating ripe bananas, so that's never an option) and for once, I had pecans. Lots and lots of pecans.

The recipe calls for some sugar, sure, but not very much. I switched from regular white sugar to very dark muscovado sugar instead. I don't know if it has any healthy benefits - I doubt it - but it seems a bit better than the evil white stuff. This recipe is also very low fat, as most biscotti recipes are, calling for just a tablespoon of oil. I decided to add in a little bit of dark chocolate, to make it more festive. (And frankly, to make it tastier. Low fat, low sugar - hey, we're not making bread.)

It turned out awesome! Do give it a try - these keep well as long as they're kept dry and preferrably in a tight-lidded container.

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Score the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds in a large bowl. Add the oil, mix well. Add the banana and the egg, and mix. Add the sugar, salt, baking powder and flour. Mix well. Finally, add the pecans and the chocolate, and fold in. The batter will be quite sticky.

Flour your hands, and shape two flattened logs on a baking sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until they seem fairly dry and have a bit of color. Remove from oven, and let them cool a bit. Lower oven temperature to 120°C.

When the logs are cool enough to handle, slice them into 1 cm slices. Place, cut side down, on a baking sheet, and let dry in the oven for 15 minutes. Flip them over to their other cut side, and dry for 15 more minutes.

I hope you won't mind me asking a totally unrelated question just like this, but I've noticed in the past you seem to have a real liking for Jamie Oliver.So I gave his show a try the past couple of days (being trapped in by snow and having found that yes, we do get it here, even if only on SAT)... Needless to say, I was completely in awe by the time the final credits were rolling.Which of his books do you think is the best one to start from, in your opinion? I can't really decide, and you're the expert, afterall-- ;)Thanks in advance!

Shin

-- on a side note, I give these biscotti a try afterall. Even if bananas and I hold no sympathy for eachother whatsoever, they look just so damn tasty and crunchy... will be dumped on father and older brother, in case we just can't call it truce (though, who in their right mind would call it truce with someone who was trying to eat them?).

Katschakai - did you try them with the gluten-free flour? Did that work out?

Darnalmonds - ooh, my favorite Jamie-book.. well, I'll have to say Jamie's Dinners. It might not be very sophisticated (not that sophistication is really Jamie's thing) but it's the one I use most frequently. Everything I've tried from it (and that's quite a lot) comes out delicious! Pretty amazing, really!

Well, I think that you have have bent the rules a tiny, tiny bit, Anne - but who cares! Those biscotti look and sound fantastic. I'm definately trying them next time I find myself with a banana to use up.